It was the
first day of school. A group of kids stood
congregated on the school steps leaning against
the banisters. I was new at this school, new in
the town.

I walked calmly up the steps and stood next to a
curly red headed girl, "Hi! I'm Jess."

"Hey, I'm
Kat." The girl replied, and then she
pointed to five kids and introduced me. "This is
Jim,
Billy, Jo, and Kris." Amazingly, they all smiled and waved to
me. I was accepted.

"So, are the teachers nice
here?" I asked Kris.

"Yeah, for the most part."

And the conversation
continued.

Unfortunately, that wasn't what
happened. That was
the Other Me, the one I always wanted to be, the
one I always thought about. But in actuality, I
was shy and awkward, not brave and outgoing. Not
like
the Other Me at all.

I boarded the bus at 7:17 and sat in the seat
behind the bus driver. Although I was sitting in a
three
seater, I didn't want anyone else to sit with me.
I put my backpack on one seat and my coat on the
other. There, I was blockaded from everyone.
Luckily there wasn't any need for me to move my
stuff. I rode to school in silence while all the
other kids conversed about their amazing summers at
camp.

While climbing off the bus, I tripped and
fell. I
picked myself up. I don't think any one even
noticed I had fallen. I was just another new kid, a kid to be picked on or ignored.

There was an open door off to the side of the main
door. Ducking my head, I ran through the door and
found myself in the library where I waited out the
torturous five minutes before class.

Unfortunately, this was what
happened. I was as
shy as last year, but unlike last year, I didn't
have any
friends at my school. I longed for a kid to stop
me as I crept into the library day after day.
Someone
to notice me, even bully me. The first week of
school was torture. Each day at lunch, I ate at
the new
kid table. We weren't united as new kids but as
losers. We all sat alone together, at the same
table. We were united by the longing for friends,
but we wouldn't settle for each other - new kid friends.

In history, we were assigned to work on a
project.
We got to pick our own teams, teams of three. I
panicked. We had five minutes to form teams. The
teams were formed instantly. Belle and Bev were
best friends, but they didn't have a third person
for their group. There were a few kids leftover,
all new
kids, not willing to form a team between
themselves.

Surprisingly, Belle came over to me, "Er...
do
you want to be in our group?"

I was shocked. "M-me?"

"Yeah
you." Belle was shifting her weight between
her two legs.

"Sure, I guess."

"Great. You know Bev, right?"

"Um, only from seeing her around."

"Well, that's Bev."

"Okay. You're Belle,
right?" I made sure that I
knew her name.

"Yup. Oh! I almost
forgot. Do you want to sit
with us at lunch and work on the project a little?"

"Sure!" I said a little too loudly,
too quickly.

"See you
there." Belle pivoted around on one foot
and walked over to Bev.

Lunch came and
went. Days turned into weeks.
Belle and Bev became my friends. Weeks turned
into months. It was December.

Each year at Abe Prep, there was a school dance
called Chick Pick. Each girl got to pick a guy who
was to be her date for the dance. We didn't have
to pick, we could just go with a group of friends.
I
asked myself what the Other Me would do. I knew
what the regular me would do. I would just go with
Belle and Bev. The Other Me would ask Danny Jones
to the dance. Danny was the guy I had liked
since October.

Hadn't I always wanted to be the
Other Me? What did I have to lose? I knew Belle
and Bev would stand by me, no matter what.

The dance was two weeks away and everyone was
picking their dates. I walked up to Danny, "Are
you
going with anyone?"